Trials and Tribulations
by SkipperStark
Summary: From humans to penguins to humans again (most of the time), dealing with whatever life decides to throw at them on the way, Fem!Skipper Humanised! or is that...penguinised? featuring Blowhole and zoosters and mysterious backstories. Will also explore the movies. So, Care to join me on this tale of adventure and humour as our main characters become... The Penguins Of Madagascar?
1. Chapter 1

AN! This was inspired by my cousin, known on here as Dragones, (known to me as Lizzie the Annoying), and her story The penguin Operatives. so if anything seems similar, its cos she let me use a few of her SMALLER background ideas, in exchange for a few of mine. Like the thing with Hans that will pop up in later chapters. She let me use that . Oh, and we're both british so if we got details on america wrong, sorry, never been there, but we want to! Reviewers will receive hugs!

Alexis. xxx

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When Skipper walked into the office that morning, for the meeting Of Hell as she internally referred to it as, she didn't expect how much of a turnabout this would be. The meeting in her eyes, was more of a court martial regarding her actions on the last mission. So she blew up the base, so what? They _had_ asked her to eliminate all the potential threats hiding there, and she'd done it in record time too. But obviously people didn't see it that way. Probably thought she was suicidal or something, especially after... No! Now was not the time to think of that, she had a meeting with General Millicent Pearson, for god's sake! That woman terrified her! though of course she never let it show.

As she stepped through the door without knocking, the older woman behind the desk looked up and sighed. "Well, at least you're on time."

"I'm always on time. What? you were hoping to get me on _that_ too?"

"Skipper...despite what you might think, I'm just trying to look out for you. Your father-"

"Doesn't want anything to do with me in case I 'tread on his name'. Save it for someone who believes it Millie," Skipper was the one person who dared to speak like this to the General, who, although she'd never admit it especially to her, did care for the young captain, who she'd known since her father had moved back to the US, bringing his 17 year old daughter. To be honest, she'd felt sorry for her, her mother barely dead and buried, and her being uprooted from the only home she'd know to go to her fathers homeland. When she had dropped the accent, and picked up an American one, it had been a surprise, but Skipper never went back from it. By the time she joined the program, you wouldn't think she had been born anywhere other than America, and she never told anyone otherwise.

Skipper continued "the old man cares about me as much as a bucket of slugs. The only thing he ever did for me was get me into the program."

"Its about the program that I wanted to talk to you about. Your actions lately have been getting more and more reckless, and its only a matter of time before you get hurt." she glanced at the clock next to the door, "In the training days of the program, you always did work best with a team. One group in particular if I recall. Alexander Kowalski, Richard Collins and William Private. When working together you four always got top marks."

"Yes, so, I worked well with them? Just cut to the chase- you obviously have something planned, just spit it out."

Before the other woman could respond a knock sounded from the door and it swung open hesitantly.

A young man, who many would still see as a boy, stuck his head in. "You wanted to see me General Pearson?" his accent marking him as foreign to these shores. Upon noticing the room's other occupant his face lost the nervousness as he grinned, eyes lighting up, "Skipper!"

"Hiya kid." she acknowledged as his grin attempted to infect her façade, the small smile already tugging at her lips.

"How've you been? I tried to find you after the program, but I kept missing you by a second!"

"Private! If I could hold your attention for just one moment!" The general snapped and the boy shuffled into the room, apologising,

Just as he went to shut the door, the three of them heard footsteps thundering up the corridor towards them.

"Wait!" one of the men panted upon reaching them, "we're...here..."

"Indeed, Sergeant Kowalski, Sergeant Collins." She greeted them coolly.

The second man grinned and ran a hand over the back of his neck, awkwardly. "My fault General, was helping Kowalski and was supposed to remind him of the time."

"Indeed." she said again.

"Look," interrupted Skipper, "As good as it is to see you three again, what the duce is going on here?"

"As I said before, you are getting too reckless working solo. Meet your new team."

"What? No! You know it isn't safe! After what happened to-"

"Silence, Captain! Its this or I am forced to retire you. Kowalski, you've been fast tracked into 1st Lieutenant, Skipper here will be leader and Collins is in charge of weaponry." she stood and herded them back out the door, "Your 'HQ' is still set up from when you were with-" she saw Skipper's face and adjusted her words, "your old team."

The younger woman attempted to reason, "Ma'am, can I speak with you for a moment?"  
"Nope." and the door closed in their faces.

"Hoover Dam! She has no right to-!" she stopped and looked at...her team. "Well, guess we better head to the HQ. we'll stop at the bunks on the way so you can pick up your stuff."

Yep. Her life was going straight to hell.

This was how their story continued. It had started several years before, when a new 'top secret' program was announced, that only the best could get into. Even then it was hard to gain admission, unless of course, you had someone to pull the strings.


	2. Chapter 2

Years earlier than we were last with our team, a young woman, 19 years old, was in the middle of a heated argument with her father. This was nothing new, it wasn't a particularly important argument. It had been had many ties before. However the day it occurred on, well, that was important.

This was the day before what was only ever referred to as the Program, the best and brightest and toughest trained to be fast tracked into special ops. There were four different divisions to the Program, to teach each cadet a specialisation. Leadership, Technological Analyst, Weapons expert, and Undercover work. The Program was unique, the first of it kind as it allowed those training in it to make a completely fresh start, choosing a new name if they so desired, which would become their legal name.

This was when Skipper was born. Before then, she had used the name given to her by her mother, with her father's surname.

The argument was about this:

Her father had been a high up officer in the American Military, and had moved away after an early retirement.

After the woman he had married died, he returned to the US, bringing his daughter, and returning to his job at the military.

The daughter, who at that point was called Lola Brixton, wanted to do something for the country her father had always talked about, begged him to let her enter the program.

In the end he relented, agreeing to pull a few strings and get her accepted into it. On one condition, his daughter, who he had always seen as a disappointment, would have to change her name, so she would lose her connection to him, and his reputation would be secure.

Lola didn't see why she had to do this, but in the end agreed, vowing that she would be better than him one day and that he would wish he had not enforced this, as he would want a claim on her reputation.

It had taken a while, or maybe, when she looked back on it, not long enough, to come up with a new name.

Skipper had been a nickname when she was 6 that had stuck until she was 13, when her American friend that used the name moved back to the US. She couldn't remember why he had called her that, but it seemed fitting somehow- a fresh start in America using a name given to her by one of its own. What was his name... Alexander Rogers, that was it! Alex. He was a year older than her if she recalled correctly, her first friend, most being scared of her, as she was a tough child, her father making her take all types of defence classes.

So she became Skipper (no last name needed, people would know it as her, after all, she was going to devote her life to rising up the ranks of this system and showing her father she didn't need his damn name to get somewhere) and Skipper knew where she was heading in life.

As she argued with her father one last time over the name fiasco, she wondered if Alex would recognise her if they met now. Probably not, she had changed a lot since he moved away. It may have sounded melodramatic for a 19 year old, but Life had taken its toll, and her once bubbly personality was lost behind a grim mask of determination.

That night, Lola lay down to sleep in the barracks, ready for training to start in the morning, but it was Skipper who awoke the next day, Lola gone, in Skipper's mind, as if she never existed.

The first thing that happened at the program, was that groups were formed, each having four members, one from each specialisation. This was where Skipper met the others. In her group they had the young genius that went by the name of Alexander Kowalski.  
Filling in the role of weapons expert (in training) was Richard Collins, a nice enough man who, told them to call him Rico.

Then there was the British James William Private, who was only 15, but apparently his uncle had pulled strings and got him in early, according to Private, because he kept getting into fights and 'needed a way to protect himself'.

There had been a couple of raised eyebrows over the name 'Skipper' but nobody questioned it. When the teams where set individual tasks, they failed miserably if it wasn't in their immediate skill range, but when working together, they were unbeatable, consistently coming top, until of course the time came to change the teams. Skipper found herself in a group with a couple of guys who obviously thought themselves better than her. That lasted all of one day. After that Manfredi and Johnson didn't bother her again, and after the program ended, the three were made an official team, gaining another member, Hans, who quickly became Skipper's best friend.

Her friends from the training team had not left her mind, but she had higher priorities to focus on, and soon she lost contact with them.

She didn't really see any of them much, maybe only Kowalski or Rico in the corridors after a mission, but she didn't see Private at all, she was too busy. Then, of course things happened, and at the age of 32, she found herself being on a team with them again after all this time.


	3. Chapter 3

AN. OK, three things.

1. Sorry it's been so long since an update. Two words- A levels.

2. Sorry it's so short, see above reason of A levels.

3. Yes, I am a Marvel Buff, and watch Agents of SHIELD, and YES, I stole the car. How could I not? It has the perfect name and everything!

**ONWARDS!**

* * *

Having collected her new team's stuff, Skipper realized that she would have to prepare her new team for her actions, and explain to them why she was bitterer than she had been.

"Look, how much do you know of the Denmark incident?"

"Denmark?" Kowalski frowned, "Not much, above our pay grade. Why?"

"Oh, no reason, just that my last team died there." she spat, as they strode through the corridors, en route to the motor pool.

"That was you? I thought it was Commander Bell's mission?"

"He lead the Operations Booth but I had tactical command."

"Is that why you didn't want us to be on your team?" Private, showing his perceptive side, asked, face creased in a small frown as he examined his new commanding officer.

"Yes. I only tell you this now, so you understand, if I say 'go' or 'evacuate' or hell, even 'I'm going in alone' I want it followed. To the letter." She sighed as they entered the car park, " I can't have any more deaths on my hands."

The others took note of this and shared a look, one that clearly asked what their old friend had gone through.

Looking at the cars, Skipper shook her head, some small mirth returning as she gazed at all the black sedans and SUVs. "look at that, all the same... They haven't realized yet that having cars like that is like jumping from the empire state building, with the Christmas crowd below, releasing thousands of balloons to the sky and shouting **'**_I'm a secret agent_**'** through a microphone linked to the times square jumbotron, accompanied by a megaphone for closer listeners. All it does is draw attention... The best thing is to hide in plain sight." She pulled a set of keys from her pocket and lead them over to one corner, where, shining even in the gloom, sat a cherry red 1962 Corvette. The others stopped in their tracks.

"Meet Lola, my pride and joy."

"Whoa... Seriously?" Rico's face lit up. "Can I drive?"

"Did you miss the 'pride and joy' part, Collins? If I want her destroyed, then you can drive. No, no-one drives Lola but me ."

"What's with the name?" Kowalski asked, only partly listening, already working out what tech to integrate with the car.

"I've had this car for years, since before the Program, since before I could drive," _so it gets a name from my past, a reminder that life moves on, _she thought but didn't say, choosing instead to ignore the scientist's question. This was noted and he moved on to the next one.

"What can she do?"

"You mean besides 0 to 60 mph in 5.8 seconds, and 1/4 mile in 12 seconds? Oh, not much, just flamethrowers, a turbo boost." She paused, looking thoughtful, "oh! And really comfy seats!"


End file.
